The present invention relates to a method and a wireless communication device for an antenna deployment determination, and more particularly, to a method and a wireless communication device that can correctly determine how many antennas are attached thereto.
Nowadays many wireless communication devices include multiple antennas for wireless transmission and reception. For example, a wireless communication system supporting a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology may use multiple antennas for wireless signal transmission and reception. Therefore, vendors of wireless communication devices usually manufacture products, such as smart phones or laptops, with several antenna ports for various applications, e.g., radio signals transceiving in Universal Mobile Communication System (UMTS)/Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or radio signals reception in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). For example, a wireless communication device supporting 8×8 MIMO may have 8 antenna ports, such that up to 8 antennas can be attached to the wireless communication device. If the wireless communication device is to be operated in a 4×4 MIMO environment, only 4 antennas are needed. Therefore, 4 antenna ports have antennas attached, while the other 4 antenna ports do not. Such design provides flexibility for vendors/customers to develop wireless communication products.
Known method of determining how many antennas are attached to the wireless communication device is to utilize a hardware component. However, the method of utilizing an additional hardware component to determine how many antennas are attached to the wireless communication device will raise the hardware construction cost. Besides, a specific hardware device would fail to correctly determine how many antennas are attached to the wireless communication device due to different reasons, e.g. antenna types or external environments. In such a situation, the specific hardware needs to be replaced with another hardware that can appropriately determine how many antennas are attached to the wireless communication device. For the above reasons, determination of how many antennas are attached to the wireless communication device by a hardware device is cost-ineffective.